A Look at My Bilingual Kindergarten Homeschooling Schedule

Friends of mine, my readers, and even some parents we meet at the local park are often very curious about my homeschooling life.

“Why don’t you let your kids to school?”“Don’t you want some time off on your own?”“How could you possibly teach and take care of all your kids by yourself?”“How do you plan lessons for both English and Chinese?”“What do you do with your kids every day?”“What do you use for curriculum?”

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My Homeschooling “Corner”

Yes. We are living in one of the most expensive cities in the world, every inch is as valuable as gold. Homeschooling in a small space isn’t easy, but it is possible. Now, welcome to my homeschooling corner which is located in the dining room.

In the 1st photo

We have a bookshelf with tons of English books in the two bottom shelves. I put my homeschooling planners, information, folder games, and things that I don’t want them to pull them out on the top two shelves.

We store our art supplies, music instruments, and some more Chinese books in the small white bookshelf.

In the 2nd photo

I have my pocket chart and whiteboard for displaying our works. (The X-box area belongs to my husband, we may use it to play some CDs and to dance when it is raining outside, but that’s it! ) I also stored most of the supplies and materials in that brown closet under the pocket chart.

Ways to Make our Homeschooling Area Bigger than We thought

Even though we have a tiny space for school time I tried to make it bigger. Sometimes, I have story time on the couch in the living room, or sometime in their bedroom. We have our science projects in the bathroom or kitchen. We have piano lessons and singing time in front of the TV in the living room, and their bedroom with the piano as well. Of course, when we go outside to the park and supermarket, I try to involve some learning as well.

If we want, the whole world is a perfect classroom for everyone.

All of My Themes for this Year

I have repeated some of our favorite themes from last year, as well as some new one as well. There are seasonal themes and interesting themes. Most of the topic are in both Chinese and English and plans are for 2 weeks. I used my 2016-2017 Monthly Calendar {with Chinese and U.S. Holidays} to write all my plans and themes down. It is very easy and clear for me to plan out my year, weekly schedule, and all the events and tasks that I need.

Seasonal Themes

Back-to-School

Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival

Halloween

Thanksgiving

Winter

Polar Express / Christmas

Chinese New Year

Valentines’ Day

U.S. Presidents’ Day

Spring

Easter

Mothers’ Day

Fathers’ Day

Summer

Interesting Themes

Bugs

Color & Shapes

Family

Farm

Jobs

My Body

Neighborhood / Community

Pirate / Going for Adventure

Protect the Nature

Space

Shopping at Local Market in Hong Kong

Superhero

Taking Care of Myself /Hygiene

Travel / Transportation

Subjects that I include

One of the hardest things for me to choose is which topics to teach. There are so many different fun subjects to include, and they all look super important. On the other hand, I love languages, art, and music, but hate Math and science. It’s not easy to include the subjects that I was never good at and even harder to find the good ways to teach them.

Since my children are so young, hands-on activities, music & art are necessary. Of course, reading skills and basic mathematical skills are very important as well. So here are the subjects that are taught:

Religion {Bible stories & the Book of Mormon stories}

English {Literacy, sight words, & writing,etc.}

Chinese {Literacy, sight words, vocab, & writing, etc.}

Math

Music {piano lesson & nursery songs}

Art {painting & crafts}

Pretend Play

*Scienceis important too, so I incorporate different subjects and themes with science if I can. For example, art & science, music & science, and themes that are related to science (e.g.: bugs, nature, space,etc.)

My Homeschooling Schedule {2 weeks}

“How do you homeschool in both Chinese and English at home?” It was the exact same questions in my mind when we decided to homeschool our children. I was clueless about what the best method and approach was to teach 2 languages, and what is the best for my children. After a lot of thinking, researching, and praying, this is what came up with. Of course, I have changed things when things didn’t work out. But so far, I am satisfied with the plan, and I’m also excited for the new approach I’m going to do.

Last Year

During my 1st year of homeschooling, my goals were focused on good homeschooling habits and routines. I know my kids’ English is much stronger than their Cantonese, so I decided to put more effort in English than Chinese but to keep their interest and motivation in learning Chinese.

We had school Monday through Friday, mainly in the morning. Both English and Chinese Days alternately switched after one another. I even used materials in the target language and spake the target language the whole time. I think my kids loved it and had fun, but they were only able to improve their listening skills in Cantonese. I know it may not seem like enough, but I felt satisfied and didn’t have to push them and their Chinese language was still improving.

SUCCESS!!!

This Year (2016-2017)

After a year of homeschooling, I have changed a little bit from last year, but not much really. My goals for this year are balancing both Chinese & English skills, so I will focus on both languages equally.

We are having school 5 days a week still. The only difference is I am switching from English to Chinese after an entire week instead of a day. I am speaking of the target language for the whole week during school time, and all the materials and books are in that target language as well. I hope to expose my children to a deeper level of each language.

So far it is great. My oldest one felt a little intimidated because her Cantonese is not that good. Sometimes, she didn’t show any interest in Chinese books, because she thought she doesn’t know enough to read it. I felt so bad for her. However, we finally started to use my SCHOOL Theme Pack for her 1st Chinese-week. Tears almost ran out of my eyes when I saw a satisfied and confident smile on her face. I know she can do it, and I am very grateful for the opportunity to make these printable for my own children. When she read and learned vocab from the SCHOOL Vocab Book, she recognized all the vocab in one day. Then, she was confident and filled in all the answers from my SCHOOL Theme Pack.

It sounds like this “English & Chinese week” works for my home.

Chinese & English? How?

These are some essential elements to enhance bilingual homeschool learning.

100% use of the target language when speaking.

100% of the target language materials.

Provide cultural related activities or objects during school time.

Playing some background music in the target language.

Have FUN while using the target language.

Let your kids know that it is ok to make mistakes.

Always be positive with every result.

What does your homeschooling schedule look like?

How do you know what is the best plan for your child?

If you have any better methods or solution, don’t hesitate to leave comments. I would love to hear from you.

Wow!I can’t imagine homeschooling young kids and finding the time to blog! You are amazing! I barely get anything done in the summer when my son is home.I have a very similar struggle here in Spain with trying to find the right balance with the languages. In my son’s school they teach a mixture of Spanish, Valencian (Although they like to call it a language, it’s a dialect of Catalán), and English. I really wish they’d put as much effort into teaching English as they do teaching Valencian, which really is a useless language to know, but right now politically they keep forcing it. Of course, that means it’s on me to make up for the lacking in English.Keep up the good work!

Tracy, thanks for your comments. It’s really not easy to do everything, but for me right now, blogging is another way for me to exchange inspiration and knowledge of homeschooling Chinese. But it is always a concern that what is my appropriate goal of homeschooling them Chinese? How much should it be enough? How not to push their interest away? How to make lessons fun?… there are so many problems and exciting surprise that I have to face every day. Good luck on balancing your son’s learning as well. But I think one thing I have learned from all these situations is to TRUST MYSELF because I AM their MOTHER. Not the government, or the teachers. So as long as you feel right, go for it. Take the baby steps. Good luck!